from "THUMB NOTES ALMANAC -- Hitchhiking The Marcellus Shale" by Craig Czury

Because all signs say this traffic has work to do
standing between my potholes across from Allen’s Garage

The day is blue sky with storm clouds
wind warm any colder would be snow

Because people around here are frugal
maybe a $15,000 kitchen remodeled here or a new roof there

Because now the heat’s off the meth labs

The heat’s off off the farmers’ chemical fertilizers
draining into the Chesapeake

America’s largest labor boom
America’s loudest mic check

Despite the money these guys make   the hours

Despite the gag clause

Hearing my name called from under the SouthTown Market overhang

Even though owning this land when I sold the gas
what exactly will I own what will the gas company own

How will what has belonged in my family for generations
be compromised or lost

Or if I sell
Or as long as I hold out

Athough it was raining like hell I was drenched
I got a ride from a guy with heater in the back
then he fired up a doobie and I was in Scranton

She says she’d like having a steady winter
not snow one day and 70s the next

Even though he was an odd but likable character

She was driving a company truck
took a side road up to a well pad to measure 4- or 6-inch bolts

Because you’re a writer aren’t you I’m not supposed to be talking to you

Because even though Joe’s is closed someone’s in there with an airbrush

Yes but I’m not that kind of writer

There’re no complaints now (points to the grassed-over pipeline track)
there’ll be snowmobilers all over this in another month

She takes off her glasses gives them to Kolosky
she has video screen eyes they don’t focus

Because it’s warm 
Because the sun’s clouded-over 
Because it’s late afternoon  
already getting dark

Because this is going-home traffic
deer hunters and company trucks

Because 20 more minutes it will be too dark
and I’ll walk back up the hill call it a night

All because I decided to go out for a walk
All because it’s a 7 mile interview to P.J.’s to watch 48 hour softball

Because I signed early with the gas
enough to get me over the hump each month
+ veteran’s disability

Where did you live growing up?

Compromised or lost?

Because we are always trying to find ways to carry more stuff

Name specific trees flowers animals natural landmarks
secret hiding places images from recurring dreams

Because these rolling green hills no longer clear my mind


Early morning methane mist

Coffee at Lockharts

List the names of farm equipment tools and vehicles
List the names gas equipment tools and vehicles

She looks over at him before she answers

How’d you get so isolated up here with this mess

Sitting over my shadow writing this
reading the old roads
the old train beds trolley beds

Because every farm under its soil has a rock quarry

Because I’m driving my tractor to church join me

Despite all these kids being dead by now
or having serious problems by the time they’re my age
I see them
with their heads down on their desks throwing chalk
spiders have woven their hair into a skein of window light
spiders
those mystical ghosts erasing this dusty schoolhouse
begging to be clapped

No there won’t be a workers’ dispute

although I cut the girl’s hair with my pocket knife
with what they get paid
until they start coming down with something

No there won’t be a Union

So then she went into what I consider borderline stuff
a sinister undertone of poverty and secrecy

Although the men look just as gruff in the black & white
photo of bridge workers just as foreign

Although we’ve all suffered from what we do

living with a local girl around Elk Lake
she’s a landman

ice cooler  gas can   diesel can   kerosene

one step up from a rough neck a well hand
I was surprised he wasn’t wearing a cap

Despite it’s pitch dark straddling the drainage ditch and road kill
Despite the slow stare down when the headlights catch me

Because I haul junk all day I haul junk copper and brass
the out of staters’ summer homes in winter

Despite the parking lot full of Mexican gas workers
I’d jump in there and take a baseball bat to every damn one of them

Someday you’re going to bring your education over here
and we’re all going to be full of information

Despite people around here thinking they’re getting rich
all they’re getting is a new truck or a new barn

Deer with cow cut-outs under apple tree

Because they’re just ripping everything up
look at that (points to pipeline swath) just a raceway for four-wheelers

Because I see an old lawnmower and throw it in the back of my truck
an old bicycle in a yard sell it for gas money at the scrapyard

Flashlight and pepper spray

I’m less scared of what the gas industry is doing to our future
than I am computers instant karma texting

Despite the chores and the animals
The Veterans On-The-Farm Training
we worked the farm and went to Keystone part time

Because my brother put himself through college in the ‘40s
trenching the Tennessee pipeline

I came back from the Air Force a pacifist

It’s a ballast against the wind
to hold the roof on tight and weigh it down

The gas was a big surprise

Although working at Proctor & Gamble
rolling paper towels out of chemicals into sheets

Although working at the prison
I did way worse things than a lot of them inside

Despite losing my leg scuba diving in the Keys

Because
we are what
we repeatedly do Aristotle

Because just saying hello becomes a gas issue
never mind the trucks

The colorful used-lot triangular grand opening string of flags

Country good ol´boys coming up to live among country good ol´boys

Although they’re not Mexicans they turn into Mexicans simply
being gas workers          

The clash and gaps

Despite another language from another century
passed down by moss-weathered elders

Somewhere in the background I’ve been looking for you

Configuring these short rides I can see my breath


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"MARCELLUS JOURNAL" by Craig Czury appears in Vigil for the Marcellus Shale, edited by Dwain Wilder and Bart White.